Sharpe 3-Book Collection 3: Sharpe's Trafalgar, Sharpe's Prey, Sharpe's Rifles (15 page)

Ebenezer Fairley came to Sharpe’s other side. ‘We should have stayed with the convoy,’ he spat in disgust.

‘A ship like that,’ Dalton said, gazing at the French warship’s massive flank which was thick with gunports, ‘could have chewed up the whole convoy.’

‘We’d have sacrificed the Company frigate,’ Fairley said. ‘That’s what the frigate is for.’ He drummed nervous fingers on the rail. ‘She’s a fast sailor.’

‘So are we,’ Major Dalton said.

‘She’s bigger,’ Fairley said brusquely, ‘and bigger ships sail faster than small ones.’ He turned. ‘Captain!’

‘I am busy, Fairley, busy.’ Cromwell did not look at the merchant.

‘Can you outrun her?’

‘If I am left in peace to practise my trade, perhaps.’

‘What about my cash?’ Lord William demanded. He had joined his wife on deck.

‘The French,’ Cromwell decreed, ‘do not make war on private individuals. The ship and its cargo might be lost, but they will respect private property. If I have time, my lord, I will unlock my cabin. But for now, gentlemen, perhaps you will all let me sail this ship without yapping at me?’

Sharpe glanced at Lady Grace, but she ignored him and he looked back at the French warship. Fairley thumped the rail in his frustration. ‘That bloody Frenchman will make a tidy profit,’ the merchant said bitterly. ‘This hull and cargo must be worth sixty thousand pound. Sixty thousand! Maybe more.’

Twenty for the French, Sharpe thought, twenty for Pohlmann and twenty for Cromwell, a captain who fervently believed the war was lost and that the French would win. A captain who had declared that a man must make his fortune before the French took over the world. And twenty thousand pounds was a real fortune, a sum on which a man could live for ever. ‘They’ve still got to catch us,’ Sharpe tried to reassure Fairley, ‘and they’ll have to get the ship and its cargo back to France. That won’t be easy.’

Fairley shook his head. ‘Doesn’t work like that, Mister Sharpe. They’ll take us to Mauritius and sell the cargo there. There are plenty of neutrals ready to buy this cargo. And like as not they’ll sell the ship too. Next thing you know she’ll be called the
George Washington
and be sailing out of Boston.’ He spat across the rail. The tiller ropes creaked as Cromwell demanded yet another correction.

‘What about us?’ Sharpe asked.

‘They’ll send us home,’ Fairley said, ‘eventually. Don’t know about you or the major, seeing as you’re in uniform. They might put you in prison.’

‘They’ll parole us, Sharpe,’ Dalton reassured the younger man, ‘and we’ll live at liberty in Port Louis. I hear it’s a pleasant kind of place. And a good-looking young fellow like you will find a surfeit of bored young ladies.’

The
Revenant
, for it could be no other ship, fired again. Sharpe saw a monstrous billow of white smoke appear high on her bows and a few seconds later the sound of the cannon came rumbling across the water. A fountain of white spray showed a half-mile short of the
Calliope
.

‘Closer,’ Dalton grunted.

‘We should fire back,’ Fairley growled.

‘She’s too big for us,’ Dalton said sadly.

The two ships were on converging courses and the
Calliope
was still ahead, but Cromwell’s frequent course corrections were slowing her. ‘A few shots into her rigging might slow her down,’ Fairley suggested.

‘We’ll soon be showing her our stern,’ Dalton said. ‘No guns will bear.’

‘Then move a gun,’ Fairley said angrily. ‘Good God, there must be something we can do!’

The
Revenant
fired again and this time the ball bounced across the waves like a stone skipping across a pond and finally sank a quarter-mile short of the
Calliope
. ‘The gun’s getting warmer,’ Dalton said. ‘Another minute or two and she’ll be thumping us.’

Lady Grace abruptly walked across the deck to stand between Dalton and Sharpe. ‘Major’ – she spoke very loudly, so that her husband would know she talked to the respectable Dalton and not to Sharpe – ‘you think he will catch us?’

‘I pray not, ma’am,’ Dalton said, removing his cocked hat. ‘I pray not.’

‘We won’t fight?’ she asked.

‘We cannot,’ Dalton said.

She was wearing wide skirts that, because of her closeness to Sharpe, crushed up against his trousers and he felt her fingers tap his leg. He surreptitiously dropped his hand and she clutched it fiercely, unseen by anyone. ‘But the French will treat us well?’ she asked Dalton.

‘I am sure they will, my lady,’ the major said, ‘and there are a score of gentlemen aboard this ship ready to protect you.’

Grace dropped her voice to scarce above a whisper and, at the same time, gripped Sharpe’s fingers so hard that it hurt. ‘Look after me, Richard,’ she murmured, then turned and walked back to her husband.

Major Dalton followed her, evidently eager to add more reassurance, and Ebenezer Fairley offered Sharpe a crooked grin. ‘So that’s how it is, eh?’

‘What is?’ Sharpe asked, not looking at the merchant.

‘My family always had good ears. Good ears and good eyes. You and her, eh?’

‘Mister Fairley . . .’ Sharpe began to protest.

‘Don’t be daft, lad. I’m not going to say a word. But you’re a sly one, aren’t you? And so’s she. Good for you, lad, and good for her too. So she ain’t as bad as I thought, eh?’ He frowned suddenly as Cromwell demanded another tweak of the wheel. ‘Cromwell!’ Fairley turned angrily on the captain. ‘Stop fiddling with the rudder, man!’

‘I’ll thank you to go below, Mister Fairley,’ Cromwell said calmly. ‘This is my quarterdeck.’

‘A fair piece of the cargo is mine!’

‘If you do not go below, Fairley, I shall have the bosun escort you.’

‘Damn your insolence,’ Fairley growled, but obediently left the deck.

The
Revenant
fired again and this time the round shot sank within a few yards of the
Calliope
’s counter and close enough to spray the gilded stern with water. Cromwell had seen the fountain of water show above his taffrail and its proximity made up his mind. ‘Haul down the colours, Mister Tufnell.’

‘But, sir . . .’

‘Haul down the colours!’ Cromwell bellowed angrily at Tufnell. ‘Point her upwind,’ he added to the helmsman. The ensign came flapping down from the mizzen gaff and, at the same time, the
Calliope
turned her bows right round into the wind so that all the great sails hammered against the masts and rigging like demented wings. ‘Furl sails!’ Cromwell shouted. ‘Lively now!’

The wheel turned to and fro by itself, responding to the surges of water that beat against the rudder. Cromwell glowered at his passengers on the quarterdeck. ‘I apologize,’ he snarled, sounding anything other than apologetic.

‘My cash,’ Lord William demanded.

‘Is safe!’ Cromwell snapped. ‘And I have work to do before the Frenchies arrive.’ He stalked off the deck.

It took a few minutes for the
Revenant
to catch up with the
Calliope
, but then the French warship hove to off the starboard quarter and lowered a boat. The rail of the French ship was thick with men who stared at their rich prize. All French seamen dreamed of a fat Indiaman loaded with valuables, but Sharpe doubted that any Frenchman had ever gained a prize as easily as this. This ship had been given to the French. He could not prove it, but he was certain of it, and he turned to stare at Pohlmann who, catching his eye, offered a rueful shrug.

Bastard, Sharpe thought, bastard. But for now he had other things to worry about. He must stay near her ladyship and he must be wary of Braithwaite, but, above all, he had to survive. Because there had been treachery and Sharpe wanted revenge.

Sharpe went to Cromwell’s cabin as the
Revenant
was lowering the first of her boats. The cabin door was ajar, but Cromwell was not inside. Sharpe tried to lift the big chest’s lid, but it was locked. He went back to the quarterdeck, but the captain was not there either and the first French longboat was already pulling towards the
Calliope
.

Sharpe hurried back to the captain’s cabin where he found Lord William standing irresolute. His lordship disliked speaking to Sharpe, but forced himself to sound civil. ‘Have you seen Cromwell?’

‘He’s disappeared,’ Sharpe said curtly as he stooped to the chest. The large size of the keyhole suggested the lock was Indian-made, which was good, for Indian locks were simple to pick, but he knew it could well be a European lock with an Indian faceplate which could prove trickier. He fished in his pocket and brought out a short length of bent steel that he inserted into the lock.

‘What’s that?’ Lord William asked.

‘A picklock,’ Sharpe said. ‘I’ve always carried one. Before I became respectable I used to earn my living this way.’

Lord William sniffed. ‘Hardly something to boast about, Sharpe.’ He paused, expecting Sharpe to answer, but the only sound was the small scraping of the pick against the lock’s levers. ‘Maybe we should wait for Cromwell?’ Lord William suggested.

‘He’s got valuables of mine in here,’ Sharpe said, probing with the steel to discover the levers. ‘And the bloody Frogs will be here soon. Move, you awkward bastard!’ This last was to the first lever rather than to Lord William.

‘You will find a bag of cash in there, Sharpe,’ Lord William said. ‘It was too large to conceal, so I permitted Cromwell . . .’ His voice tailed away as he realized he was explaining too much. He hesitated as the first lever clicked dully, then watched as Sharpe, holding that lever back with the blade of his folding knife, worked on the second. ‘You say you entrusted valuables to Cromwell?’ Lord William enquired, sounding surprised, as if he could not imagine Sharpe possessing anything worthy of such protection.

‘I did,’ Sharpe said, ‘more fool me.’ The second lever slipped back and Sharpe heaved up the chest’s heavy lid.

The stench of old unwashed clothes assailed him. He grimaced, then threw aside a filthy boat cloak and layers of dirty shirts and undergarments. Cromwell, it seemed, washed nothing aboard the
Calliope
, but simply let the laundry accrete in the chest until he reached shore. Sharpe tossed more and more garments aside until he had reached the chest’s bottom. There were no jewels. No diamonds, no rubies, no emeralds. No bag of cash. ‘The bastard,’ he said bitterly, and unceremoniously pushed past Lord William to seek Cromwell on deck.

He was too late. The captain was already at the main-deck entry port where he was greeting a tall French naval officer who was resplendent in a gilded blue coat, red waistcoat, blue breeches and white stockings. The Frenchman took off his salt-stained cocked hat as a courtesy to Cromwell. ‘You yield the ship?’ he asked in good English.

‘Don’t have much bloody choice, do I?’ Cromwell said, glancing at the
Revenant
, which had opened four of her gunports to deter anyone aboard the
Calliope
from attempting a futile resistance. ‘Who are you?’

‘I am Capitaine Montmorin.’ The Frenchman bowed. ‘Capitaine Louis Montmorin and you have my sympathy, monsieur. And you are?’

‘Cromwell,’ Cromwell grunted.

Montmorin, the French captain of whom Captain Joel Chase had spoken so admiringly, now talked to his seamen who had followed him up the
Calliope
’s side to fill the ship’s waist. Once he had given them their orders he looked back to Cromwell. ‘Do I have your word, Captain, that neither you nor your officers will attempt anything rash?’ He waited until Cromwell had offered a grudging nod, then smiled. ‘Then your crew will go to the forecastle, you and your officers will retire to your quarters and all passengers will return to their cabins.’ He left Cromwell by the entry port and climbed to the quarterdeck. ‘I apologize for the inconvenience, ladies and gentlemen,’ he said courteously, ‘but you must go to your cabins. You, gentlemen’ – he had turned to look at Sharpe and Dalton who were the only men on the quarterdeck in military uniform – ‘you are British officers?’

‘I am Major Dalton.’ Dalton stepped forward, then gestured to Sharpe who still stood beside the wheel. ‘And that is my colleague, Mister Sharpe.’

Dalton had begun to draw his claymore to offer a formal surrender, but Montmorin frowned and shook his head as if to suggest he required no such gesture. ‘Do you give me your word that you will obey my orders, Major?’

‘I do,’ Dalton said.

‘Then you may keep your swords.’ Montmorin smiled, but his elegant courtesy was given an edge of steel by three French marines in blue coats who now climbed to the quarterdeck and pointed their muskets at Dalton.

The major stepped back, gesturing that Sharpe should join him. ‘Stay with me,’ he said softly.

Montmorin had now registered Lady Grace’s presence and he greeted her by removing his hat again and offering a sweeping bow. ‘I am sorry, ma’am, that you should be inconvenienced.’ Lady Grace appeared not to notice the Frenchman’s existence, but Lord William spoke to Montmorin in fluent French, and whatever he said seemed to amuse the French captain who bowed a second time to Lady Grace. ‘No one,’ Montmorin announced in a loud voice, ‘will be molested. So long as you cooperate with the prize crew. Now, ladies and gentlemen, to your cabins if you please.’

‘Captain!’ Sharpe called. Montmorin turned and waited for Sharpe to speak. ‘I want Cromwell,’ Sharpe said and started towards the quarterdeck steps. Cromwell looked alarmed, but then a French marine barred Sharpe’s path.

‘To your cabin, monsieur,’ Montmorin insisted.

‘Cromwell!’ Sharpe called and he tried to force his way past the marine, but a second bayonet faced him and Sharpe was driven back.

Pohlmann and Mathilde, alone among the stern passengers, had not been on the quarterdeck when the Frenchmen came aboard, but now they emerged and with them was the Swiss servant who was no longer dressed in sombre grey but wore a sword like any gentleman. He greeted Montmorin in fluent French and the
Revenant
’s captain offered the so-called servant a deep bow, and then Sharpe saw no more because the French marines were ushering the passengers off the deck and Sharpe reluctantly followed Dalton to the major’s cabin, which was twice the size of Sharpe’s quarters and partitioned with wood instead of canvas. It was furnished with a bed, bureau, chest and chair. Dalton gestured that Sharpe should sit on the bed, hung his sword and belt on the back of the door and uncorked a bottle. ‘French brandy,’ he said unhappily, ‘to console ourselves for a French victory.’ He poured two glasses. ‘I thought you’d be more comfortable here than down in the ship’s cellar, Sharpe.’